Stress and Health of Mother-Child Dyads Living in Poverty

 

Introduction

Poverty and chronic stress impede optimal child development.  Although some forms of stress are essential for normal development, unbuffered chronic stress can lead to adverse health outcomes later in life. A growing body of research now identifies a direct association between the stress of mothers/ caregivers and their child. Chronic stress is difficult to measure in young children but temperament may reflect a young child’s chronic stress as it changes with experiences and environments. Furthermore, child temperament is associated with later adult health and health behaviors. The purpose of this presentation is to examine relationships between maternal stress and infant temperament of mother-child dyads living in poverty.

 

Theoretical Framework

The life course health development (LCHD) model is used to guide this study. LCHD posits how unbuffered early life risks (e.g. chronic stress) can compromise a child’s health trajectory.

 

Methods

A subsample of mother-child dyads were obtained from the Kids In Columbus Study (KICS) a longitudinal birth cohort study.  The overall aim of KICS is to examine the access, use, and impact of community-based resources during a child’s early years; that is, the period from birth to 5 years. Mothers were enrolled from Women Infants Children (WIC) clinics, which provide supplemental nutrition for low-income pregnant, postpartum, and/or breastfeeding women. We will use data from the first year to explore the relationship between maternal/caregiver stress and infant behavior. Maternal/caregiver stress is measured with the Parental Stress Index (PSI) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and infant behavior is measured using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R), Very Short Form. Regression-related analysis (Pearson and Spearman correlations) will be done on the associations between demographic variables such as child race and maternal marital status, parental stress, and infant temperament.

Results

To date, KICS has enrolled 322 mother-child dyads and for the current study, 56 women have completed the infant temperament questionnaires.  There are noted demographic similarities between the KICS sample and this study’s subsample. Over 81% of the study sample has less than a $30,000 USD annual income. The mean age of the subsample mothers was 26.3 (sd 4.5). Approximately 76.8% of the subsample mothers have not obtained a college degree. In regards to the stress and infant temperament relationships, significant correlations (p< 0.05) were found between child race and a subscale of the IBQ, negative affect (rho = .32 for Black/ African American infants; rho = -.35, p<0.01 for White/Caucasian infants). A negative relationship was also found between the EPDS and PSI (rho=-.51; p<0.01).  

 

Discussion

Results demonstrate evidence of a relationship between infant temperament and a source of stress (race), but there is an unclear negative relationship between postpartum depression and parenting stress. The literature supports racial differences in reporting infant temperament. As the IBQ is a subjective measure of infant temperament from the parent’s perspective, the racial differences could be explained by experience, environment, interactions, and resources. There is conflicting evidence in the literature on the relationship between postpartum depression and parenting stress, however, income, the use of different measures, and timing of postpartum depression may influence this relationship. The limitations of this study include a small number of participants and that parental race was not assessed. For future research, the model of this study will be utilized with the full KICS participants and assessing mother-child dyad stress on child development.